I am contemplating setting up a Listserv list that can handle temporary trial subscriptions to an electronic newsletter. This would allow people to subscribe to the newsletter for free for a while, so they can see how they like it, but to continue to receive the newsletter they would have to pay a nominal subscription fee. I have reviewed some of the Listserv literature, and what follows is my best guess on how to make this work using Listserv (I haven't tried it yet, so I would be interested in comments from anyone else who has either done this or wants to do something similar). ========================= To make this happen I think I would need two lists. The first would be a list of all the people (e-mail addresses) that have ever subscribed. The second would be a list of people currently subscribed. When people subscribe, they would send a subscription request to List 1's Listserv address. If the person subscribing is not currently on List 1, they would be added, and the subscription request would then be forwarded to List 2 via the "notify" function. If the person subscribing is already on List 1 (i.e., they subscribed in the past, but their free trial subscription expired), they would receive a reply message from List 1 saying something like "sorry, you are ineligible for another free trial subscription." The newsletter would be distributed to all the addresses on List 2. List 2 subscriptions would end after the trial period has ended. To accomplish all of this, the following configurations would be necessary. - - - (1) List 1 would have to configured so Notify = the listserv address for List 2. (2) List 2 would have to be configured so Renewal = 6 monthly, Delay (1) so that the trail would last 6 months (or whatever the desired length). Delay might alternatively be set to zero, if that is possible, to prevent people from renewing their subscription during the one day window created by setting Delay = 1. (3) An assortment of message templates would have to be changed. At minimum, List 1's notification template would need to read "subscribe List 2". List 2's renewal message template would need to be customized so that people aren't led to believe that they can resubscribe for free. (4) Because there are two automated lists involved here, we need to make sure that no never-ending loops develop. For instance, we want to make sure that when List 1 forwards something to List 2, List 2 does not respond by sending a reply to List 1, which forwards it back to List 1, and so on in a never ending loop. Fortunately, Listserv apparently has loopchecking capability, although to be cautious all of List 2's bounce or reply functions should be made inactive. - - - Also, if anyone wants to cancel their temporary subscriptions, they need to be informed in the first and all subsequent messages that they receive that to unsubscribe they need to send mail to an entirely different e-mail address. Unsubscriptions would probably have to be performed manually. This is necessary because "unsubscribe" messages sent to the List 1 listserv address will (I think) generate a "subscribe List 2" notification message to List 2, even though it is a request to unsubscribe. This is because the notification template has been altered. Alternatively, if someone is given the List 2 listserv address for unsubscribing purposes, they could unsubscribe. But there would be nothing to keep them resubscribing for free after their free trial expires simply by sending a subscribe message directly to the List 2 listserv address, thereby bypassing List 1 which normally would screen out such attempts. There is my best guess at how to do this. Anyone have any comments? ------------------------------------- Patrick Lester, Policy Analyst, OMB Watch 1742 Connecticut Ave, NW Washington, DC 20009 Voice: 202/234-8494; Fax: 202/234-8584 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Date: 01/05/96 Time: 12:47:28 -------------------------------------